Karate Elf on the Shelf - No Sew Costume

I am stepping up my elf game this year with felt costumes, because obviously, I'm crazy. Also, there is nothing I like better than starting a project at 10 O'Clock at night (sarcasm). But I HAVE to because it is imperative that I am positive, that everyone is in bed, eyes closed and knocked out. I should probably do a 'Mom Attempts: putting her kids to bed'... but we all know I'd fail miserably.  

My son just tested for his orange belt and my daughter will soon be testing for her brown belt, so I'm sure they'd get a kick out of their elves practicing Kenpo Karate.  I am so surprised that it was only 4 easy steps.

Materials
   White felt 
   Any desired colored felt
   GOOD FABRIC scissors
   Bamboo skewers
   Old fruit or vegetables (its weird, but trust me)

Karate Elves

1) Cut a strip of colored felt with your GOOD FABRIC scissors. Not with your dull kitchen scissors that is used to cut paper, the dog's hair and chicken cutlets... I'm talking your quality pair of fabric scissors that is hidden from your husband and children so they don't ruin them. If you use any old scissors on felt, you will be cursing this project.

2) Again, with your GOOD FABRIC scissors, cut a rectangle piece of white felt then cut a hole in the center of it.

3) Slide the elf's head through the felt, push the bottom of the white felt through the elves arms and tie the colored strip of felt around the waist. Easy peasy karate gisy. 

4) For the hard part... I just couldn't let it go with the costumes, I HAD to position them to appear to be in a match, so i just slid bamboo skewers through the bottom on their gi and stuck the sharp end of the skewer in an old zucchini to stand them up ( it was about to go bad anyway). I put other fruit around them to hold them up into position and i just manipulated their arms and legs until it looked like one elf was kicking and the other elf was blocking. I did this by sliding Alfy's leg through his arms and moved Belle's arms until she looked like she was blocking. I know some people modify their elves to have bendy arms and legs, however, my elves are not modified.


Check out my blog on my Elf setup last year, but that humor was more for my adult facebook friends and my kids did not see it!!!

Good block Belle!!! Sorry Alfy no point for you!

Grade: A+

Skill Level: Low
Difficulty Level: Low
Frustration Level:Low
Cost: Less than $2

Mixed Media Camera

It was my friends BLANKITY BLANK birthday this week (At our age we only provide the actual number for legal documents ONLY) and I wanted to make something personal for her. She is a photographer at True Story Photography and took My Christmas pictures last year. I made her a mixed media camera and incorporate her logo on it at the very last second.

I started out with the perfect scrapbook paper with little teal cameras on it, then I chose acrylic paints and other papers that matched. I threw in some red just to make it exciting.

I just threw all the acrylic paint colors on the canvas and just started blending. The biggest problem, I think, is the urge to over blend which makes your canvas muddy instead of having an overall marbling effect.

While still wet, I added some lighter paint to a swirly stamp (swirls are my favorite). After the canvas dried I added a light sponging of strategically placed red just to add dimension and bright color.

Most of scrapbook paper had designs. For the paper without a design, I used my butterfly stamp to create a whimsical effect. It was easy to cut out shapes to create a camera because the shape is pretty basic. 

I went around the edges of some the papers with acrylic paint to provide an outline effect. 

I printed out "... worth a thousand words" on my printer and added my swirl stamps. 

After decoupaging the entire thing , I decided that i should have added a tree and key. Luckily I had a tree stencil and I had bought keys at the craft store. After stenciling on the tree,I decoupaged the entire thing again. The final touch was gluing on the key.

 I hope she likes it !


Grade: A
Skill Level: Minimal
Difficulty Level: Low to Moderate 
Frustration Level: Low
Cost: I have no idea, I had all this stuff at home already